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Developers have become Toronto’s new city builders

Conventional wisdom has it that Toronto is all full up, that there’s no room left in this ark. Not quite. In fact, there are probably more large-scale mixed-use projects underway in the city than at any time in its recent history.

They’re happening at unwanted malls and in parking lots, at decommissioned school properties and industrial sites. And let’s not forget the massive Downsview Park and, of course, the waterfront. Together, they add up to enough space to change the face of Toronto yet again.

An artist’s depiction of Sugar Wharf, which is now being built at the old LCBO site on Queens Quay E. The size of the apartments being built there signals that the focus is more on creating community than constructing a tower or two, Christopher Hume writes. (Supplied)

The opportunity is extraordinary, but so are the possibilities of failure. If there’s a reason for optimism, it lies in the fact that local developers have matured in recent decades. Most now realize they must do more to avoid the mistakes that left many of these sites up for grabs. Even in the suburban paradise that is Canada, economic reality has dealt with the sort of default thinking that led to an excess of malls and enough parking spots for every driver looking for Boxing Day bargains.

Today’s mantra is mixed-use and, as mantras go, it’s not bad. It means that the failed planning policies that prevailed from the postwar period until recently has been banished from the city. Developers, if not planners, now include residential, commercial, retail and institutional uses in their projects, as well as community amenities and a serious public realm.

Matt Young, vice-president of development at Capital Developments, talks of trying achieve that urban experience of “organized chaos” at the 7.3-acre property his firm is remaking at Bloor St. W. and Dufferin St. This is a far cry from the regulated sterility of every purpose in its place.

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“We spent 10 months doing public engagement,” Young explained. “The biggest thing we heard is that public space is a really important part of the project. We want to create a great public realm and affordable housing along with fine-grained retail.”

Meanwhile, down on the waterfront, the 11.5-acre former LCBO property is being transformed into a master-planned community that will have a bit of everything — residential, retail, office, a park, daycare and a school. “We think this is super-exciting,” said Menkes Developments vice-president of highrise residential, Jared Menkes. “We’re building a whole community. No one thought workers would go south of the railway tracks, but we’ll have 4,000 office workers down here. Being connected to the PATH pedestrian system is a huge bonus. We’ll also have Toronto’s first vertically integrated school. Millennials want to experience life rather than spend their time commuting.”

A bit farther east on Queens Quay, the 13-acre Bayside precinct is taking shape. The huge venture has been conceived to attract residents, including families, not just investors. As Tridel’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing Jim Ritchie, puts it, “We are drawing people from all over Toronto and the GTA, Oakville, Rosedale, Thornhill ... We’re not replicating what’s typical downtown. The average unit size is 1,500 square feet. There’s a demand for larger units. People want to be in the city now.”

The size of the apartments signals that the focus is more on creating community than constructing a tower or two. For developers, that means the space between buildings is now as important as the buildings themselves. Given what we know about how neighbourhoods work, it’s clear architecture has little to do with success — or failure. This isn’t to say design doesn’t matter; it does. Cabbagetown is a good example; built for middle-class buyers in the late 19th century, it had become slummy in the postwar period. Since then, it’s become one of Toronto’s most desirable (and expensive) neighbourhoods.

Today developers are laying out streets, building parks and planning transportation, shopping and sustainability. In other words, they have become city builders. Like it or not, megaprojects like these are redefining Toronto and how we inhabit it. To avoid the mistakes of the past — St. James Town, Regent Park, Lawrence Heights — developers are learning to think more holistically. Which means, of course, mixed use.

“These large sites give us an opportunity to do stuff you can’t in infill projects,” said Ritchie. “They’re big enough to be fully master-planned.”

It helps that Waterfront Toronto prepared a series of precinct plans before the developers moved in, but its range is limited. The industry and market are more sophisticated, but it’s still early days. Projects such as these and others, the Honest Ed’s site, Alexandra Park and Regent Park are definitely reasons for hope, which even here, springs eternal.

Christopher Hume is a former Star reporter and a freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @HumeChristopher

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